From weed-smoking baby boomers to cannabis-treated patients, senior citizens have become the new market for medical marijuana

Activist Ray Turmel holds a bag of medical marijuana while he smokes a marijuana cigarette, as he calls for the total legalization of marijuana, outside the building where the federal election Munk Debate on Canada’s Foreign Policy is being held in Toronto, Canada, September 28, 2015. Reuters/Mark Blinch

To those who are concerned that legalisation of cannabis will spawn a community of pot-smoking teenagers, park aside those fears. To begin with, a decades-long study conducted by the National Institute of Health from 1991 through 2014 arrived at the conclusion that making recreational marijuana legal will not necessarily increase its use among teenagers. However, the reverse is true: it is these adolescents’ grandparents who are asking that cannabis — but this time, of the medical kind — be made more available and affordable. Legalisation can certainly help. These so-called Baby Boomers, who are aged 55 and above, have taken to cannabis as a way to alleviate joint pain, remove insomnia and prevent the spread of cancer.